MQM briefly suspends 19 Rabita Committee members

Reinstates them hours later after Altaf Hussain accepted their apologies.

KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)’s Rabita Committee reinstated on Sunday 19 of its members, hours after they were suspended because of their ‘irresponsible behaviour’. The members were reinstated after the party chief, Altaf Hussain, accepted their apologies.

“All members should recognise and realise their responsibilities and while fulfilling them, there should be no negligence or carelessness,” said Altaf, speaking to the members after their reinstatement on Sunday evening.

The announcement of the suspension and then reinstatement was made by party statements issued to the media.

The suspended and later on reinstated 19 members included senior leaders such as provincial health minister Dr Sagheer Ahmed, Senator Nasreen Jalil, MNA Abdul Rasheed Godil, Haider Abbas Rizvi, Mumtaz Anwar, Aminul Haque, Kanwar Naveed, Adil Siddiqui, Syed Shakir Ali, Saifyar Khan, Adil Khan, Khalid Sultan, Ahmed Saleem Siddiqui, Yusuf Shahwani, Aslam Afridi, Ashfaq Mangi, Tauseef Khanzada, Nisar Panwar, Kahaf Alwarah.

According to the MQM, the members were suspended for an indefinite time period from Rabita Committee after they were found absent from their duty on Sunday morning.

Upon suspension, the MQM had directed the members not to participate in party functions including iftar dinners, warning that they would otherwise be expelled. The members were barred from political activities and were told to remain at their homes.

MQM leader Wasay Jalil speaking to The Express Tribune from London denied that the decision had anything to do with donation collection and Zakat drives or that there was any party rift, and said the matter was solely related to party discipline.

“Just like every organised body, we have a strict code of conduct. Here timing was the issue and when the members were not found on duty, a decision was taken to suspend them.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 21^st, 2014.